He won competition to design an experiment to go up with the Space Shuttle Endeavour. He says his project has to do the microencapsulation of the antibiotic drug Cipro.

“That’s when… something that’s like microscopic is coated, so I’m using ciprofloxacin, and that’s going to be coated by coating called polyvinylpyrrolidone.”

His teacher, Sharon Churchwell, describes Brandon as a student who thrives on challenge.

“He’s just a really dedicated, wonderful student,” Churchwell said. “His eyes lit up when he had to do a math calculation that was beyond him.”

When Endeavor was first due to launch a few weeks ago, Brandon and his classmates from Lincolnwood’s Lincoln Hall Middle School were in Florida to watch. But when that launch was scrubbed, this time they had to settle for watching on television.